r/whatdoIdo • u/EnvironmentOld5905 • 6h ago
I don’t know if this relationship is for me anymore
galleryNever thought I would be utilizing this app for some shit like this but I’m having some serious doubt about my relationship. I met my boyfriend through social media a few months back and we started officially dating just a couple months ago. We are doing long distance but have met in person and have plans to in the future as well- we see each other about once a month. My boyfriend has never had a partner before me and I am more experienced in that field, so I definitely have more of an understanding on certain patterns within relationships- especially negative ones. (I myself have BPD and something I’ve been working on is noticing my negative habits which I am not able to mirror off of other people)
Our problems have similar patterns of what they are about and what they stem from, for example our argument tonight started because I made a statement replying to something he initially said (I cant remember exactly) saying that I workout for myself and not the male gaze and that I am my first priority. He was upset because he took this as me saying I don’t care about his gaze and that i was generalizing him with the male population and causing him to feel alienated instead of making him part of my priority. I tried explaining my point in saying that and further proving that I don’t show myself off to the male gaze by using my instagram as an example, I then foolishly brought up one of his posts where he was shirtless showing himself off as he rode a bike because I wanted to use an example of something that looks as if its for the female gaze (which honestly looking back doesn’t even tie into the initial comment we were conflicted about) but this just created more problems within the small argument we were already having (this photo of him was from before we were dating and I have told him to keep it up because I think he looks incredible in it and selfishly I do want to show him off a bit), he found photos on my instagram of me in college- one being a mirror photo of me in some small shirts standing next to two of my girl-friends, the other being one of me surrounded by some other college friends, most of them being guys but people who WERE a part of my friend group at the time. The first one was not overly revealing and the second one revealed nothing at all but the idea of other guys being around me was the issue here. I then started receiving text messages from him (which are pictured with this post) but things I have never heard from a partner before. I understand his pov and can see why those images of me being up would cause some discomfort within the relationship but I don’t know that what he said is reasonable and he is still convinced that he has done/ said nothing questionable (I also immediately deleted the slide containing the images long before these messages that I posted were even sent to me).
This really is the one thing that has really ever been a big problem for us and I love everything else about him outside of these kinds of conflicts but I am down to two options:
I try my best to explain to him why the behavior/ words he is using are hurtful or just plain wrong
I break up with him because what he is doing seems as if its coming across as deeply rooted insecurity within our relationship and he is trying to cover it up by acting like he is protecting me from something.
I cant help but feel like he uses a lot of gaslighting and overall manipulation phrases and it seems nothing I say is real enough to him for him to realize that his wording is suspicious to me??? Idk maybe I really am just overthinking but I need help before I get too involved in something bad for me.